The Next Step
by Draco'z Devil
Summary: Angelina loved him, she really did. There was just a slight glitch in being married to a man who never took anything seriously.


Hey, a random idea that just made its way into my brain. My first shot at any story that doesn't involve Draco, Ginny, or any of their offspring. Hope you enjoy it.

Angelina loved him, she really did

Angelina loved him, she really did. There was just a slight glitch in being married to a man who never took anything seriously. Fred Weasley had charmed her from the moment she had set foot onto the Quidditch pitch. By the time the war was over, they were beyond ready to married.

It had been eleven years since they'd gotten married. And luckily, they had also been blessed with a wonderful son and two twin daughters. Apparently they ran in the family since all the Weasleys so far had had twins.

Their son, Abi, was turning ten years old soon and had begun to receive letters from various wizarding schools worldwide. The name of Weasley was held in awe after the war, and all the schools would love to have one of the Weasleys as their students.

"Fred," Angelina said to him one day, "can we talk?"

"Am I in trouble? I swear George did it."

"No Fred," she sighed; this wasn't the first time she'd tried talking to him seriously and he'd tried to avoid it with a joke. "You're not in trouble. I just wanted to talk about Abi."

"What did he do now? Do I need to punish him? No wait," he stopped and took out a note pad in which he marked down who had last punished each of the children. They both took turns doing it just to keep it fair. "I did it last time. You remember; he put a tack on Harry's chair. I really did regret punishing him for that. It was so simple and so genius. George and I started to develop a new product. It's called the AbiTak. You see, this way kids can stick the tack on the teacher's chair before they come in, and the teacher won't even be able to see it."

Angelina forced a smile onto her lips. When Fred started talking like this, there was no stopping him. He went on and on and on. It was even worse when George was there. The two of them would bounce comments right off each other, neither of them completing any of their sentences. She sighed to herself; that was the end of the conversation for the night. She had lost her will to speak to him.

Fred had always spoken about 'When Abi goes to Hogwarts…' She really hated to crush his dreams for his son, but she had always regretted that her parents had never had the money to send her somewhere new. She hadn't set foot out of England once in her life and had always wanted her children to do what she never had the opportunity to. She also wanted them to have a say in their lives.

"So, what do you think?" Fred asked.

"I think that it's great," she responded half-heartedly.

"What's great?" he asked.

He was testing her! "Your product."

He shook his head. "Sometimes, I wonder if you only married me for the good sense of humor." His face showed sorrow for a split second before his constant grinning face reappeared.

She was about to reply when the grandfather clock chimed ten.

"I better go tuck the children in," she said getting up from the table.

She left before he had time to even open his mouth.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

She walked into her son's bedroom. "Abi, it's time for bed."

"Sure thing Mum."

"Honey, I wanted to ask you where you would like to go to school."

"Can I go to New York?"

"New York? Why New York?"

"Because my pen pal lives there, and I'd really like to meet him," he replied.

"Your father and I will think about it. Sleep well." She kissed him on the forehead and turned the lights out as she left.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After many days of contemplation, Angelina had decided to talk to Ginny. The two of them had always been very close.

"Hey Ginny," she said as she stepped in.

"Hey Angie," she said, "how are you?"

"You really wanna know?" Angelina asked.

"Of course!" Ginny said, "What happened Angie?"

"How do you know something happened?"

"Angie, do we really have to do this every time something happens?"

"Fred won't talk to me."

"Won't talk to you as in ignores you or just keeps blabbing so that you can't get a word in edgewise?"

"More like he keeps blabbing."

"What did you wanna talk to him about?" Ginny asked.

"I want Abi to go to school wherever he wants to," Angelina said softly. She wondered if Ginny's shock would match the one she was positive she would see on Fred's face if she saw him.

"And he doesn't want to talk about it? Or have you not brought it up properly?"

"I haven't really brought it up properly. Every time I'm ready to, he starts talking about something else, and I don't have the heart to stop him," she sighed. "I wish it wasn't so difficult to talk to him."

"You know, something I've learned about men is that unless you start talking to them, they won't have any idea that you want to talk to them about something. The last time I got mad at him, he sent me flowers and chocolate, but when I asked him what he was apologizing for, he didn't know," Ginny smiled, "but he was really sweet. He said that he hated it when I was mad at him and then…well…anyways, the idea is that he's not gonna know something's wrong until you tell him."

"Oh, thanks Gin," she said gratefully, "and how is it that you seem to know more about men than I do?"

"That's 'cause I grew up with them!" she smiled. "Just sit him down and tell him that you have something really important to talk to him about and that he's not allowed to talk until your done. Use a charm if necessary, although I doubt it will be. Once you tell them that you want to talk about something serious they usually listen, however…"

"Yeah?" She leaned in eager to soak up any information Ginny threw her way.

"I don't know about Fred…"

"Whadaya mean?"

"Well…I can't recall the last time I had a decent conversation with him. Even when we were at Hogwarts with all our Voldemort problems, The twins always seemed to laugh things off or turn it into some sort of joke. The last time he was serious was when he proposed to you."

"Oh…Ginny," she could feel the tears slipping down her cheeks, "I can't believe my marriage is falling apart. I love Fred, I really do, I just…I don't know how to talk to him."

"Shhh," Ginny said as she ran her hands through her hair. "Angie, your marriage will not fall apart. You're a Weasley, and Fred will never take that away from you. He loves you too much."

"But I feel him slipping. He comes home late every night, and leaves early in the morning. I know I'm not as young as I once was; maybe he's found someone younger, someone pretty, someone who still laughs at his repetitive jokes instead of glaring at him."

"Angie, Fred would never leave you. Like I said, he loves you way too much to let you go. He could be busy at work, or maybe he's trying to organize something special for you."

Angelina gave her a skeptical look.

"I don't know, but it doesn't have to be something bad."

Angelina nodded, "You're right Gin, I'm getting worked up over nothing. I'll try talking to him tonight."

They got up and said their goodbyes before Angelina's feet carried her to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

"I'd like to speak to Fred Weasley, please," she said to the cashier.

"Do you have an appointment ma'am?" he asked politely.

Something inside of her flared, "Do you really think that I need an appointment to see my husband?"

"N…No ma'am. I'll call him right away." The young boy ran back to get him and Angelina took to looking around the shop; she hadn't been here for a long time. As she looked around, she noticed the shelves were stocked with every possible prank one could think of. The canary creams and vomit lozenges from the old days were gone, replaced with an array of treats that would cause multiple reactions from those who consumed them. A particularly bright colored box advertised a lozenge that gave a student a fever so that they could get out of class; thank goodness it would disappear once one had completely ingested it.

"Angie."

Angelina spun around to find herself face to face with her husband. "Fred, we need to talk, seriously."

"Um…ok," he said nervously. "How about after dinner?"

"No, now Fred. There wont be an after dinner."

"But honey, I'm at work and we have this really important customer who is coming today. Did I tell you about him? His name is Mr. Smith and he wants to fund a good portion of the research, and—"

"Fred," she said cutting him off, "this is about Abi."

"What did he do today?" Fred asked quickly, "I swear, if he blew up the backyard from one of his muggle experiments, then I'm not cleaning it up. Who knew muggles could make such a mess of things with out magic. It does make you appreciate—"

"Fred," she cut him off again, "Abi didn't do anything wrong—"

"He didn't?" Angelina shook her head, "Oh, I do believe our display is off," he said rushing towards the display case before she could get another word in edgewise.

Something was going on. She walked up to him slowly. "Fred," she said quietly.

"And I'm going to have to fix up the Christmas decorations. George was telling me that they were torn."

"Fred, its July," she said softly, "You won't need Christmas decorations for six months."

"But—" he began.

"Fred you've been avoiding this conversation," she said, "Why?"

"He's my son, Angie. My first and only son. How could I send him anywhere but Hogwarts? The Weasleys have gone to Hogwarts for as long as we can remember. What would everyone else say? It would look like I was trying to get rid of him. Send him far away so that I could…I don't know."

"What if he wants to go? When I was young, I always wanted to live in new places, but my parents could never afford it. I wouldn't be surprised if he has the desire to see as well."

"How could he want to go? So far away! And no matter where you send him, he would be the outsider, the outcast. How could I do that to him? He's always been the center of attention; he must be used to it by now."

"Fred," she wrapped herself around him, "you wouldn't be abandoning him. And all children leave their parents sometime. Don't you think he's eager to leave the house?"

"I've lost so much, Angie. So many friends and too many family members; I almost lost you and I almost lost me. I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes thinking that if I send him to the Americas or even to France, then I'll get an owl one night asking me to come pick up his body. And then, I can never go back to sleep until I check on both him and the girls."

"Fred, nothing will take him away from us like that. He will be perfectly fine no matter where he goes. And you need to remember that in the end, he's the one who will be living with the consequences of our decision."

"We…We should ask him where he wants to go. He is the one who will be there and not us."

"Sounds good," she said as she unraveled herself from his embrace, "So…I guess we can talk to him tonight, right?"

"Angie, that's way too soon."

"It's never too soon love," she smirked before she walked out the door, feeling a weight lifted off her shoulder. Talking to her husband wouldn't be too bad from here on out.

* * *

Please review. You know I love them!

Draco'z Devil


End file.
